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30 November 2015

Christmas is a big time of the year for a lot of people and it can be pretty hard to find the perfect gifts for someone if you are working on a budget. Here's a little Book guide that could help you find the perfect gift for the right price.

1) For the one who will read anything

If you are stuck on what book to buy then check out Amazon. There are tonnes of books to choose from the 3 for £10 section and with free delivery (Republic of Ireland and the UK) it's a great place to start. There's roughly 75 pages worth of books to choose from and they have some great names listed in there. It's easy to filter out the books you don't want as you can pick by genre and add in an author you know to see if they have any books on offer. It covers pretty much every age category too so you can mix and match for stocking fillers and save a few euro. Even with the ridiculous exchange rate from pound to euro you are still getting a massive discount on some brilliant books.

2) A Special book

This is something I try to do every year. Whether it's something I know the person has wanted for a while but couldn't justify the cost for themselves or it's something new that might start a tradition for years to come. If you have young children to buy for think about the books that you loved when you were young and maybe buy them one book or an annual from this year. It'll be something they'll always have and you can build upon every year. Even buying a book that someone read as a child might bring back some memories (and show that you listen to them!)

3) Leabhar as Gaeilge

Something I rarely see mentioned are books written in Irish. There are plenty of them around and they are just as nice to receive as a Christmas present. It's a gorgeous language and it's a pity people seem to shy away from it. Not only will the children be improving their Irish vocabulary but being bilingual is a great addition to your C.V as you get older. Plus it's out native tongue, why wouldn't you want to be able to speak and understand it? It's handy to be able to chat to someone without others knowing what you are saying ;) This website has a tonne of Irish books for all ages (it's available in English and Irish)

4) A craft book

Not every has to be a story book. Do they do any crafts like knitting, crochet or maybe they play a musical instrument? You can find all kinds of books to do with these subjects so it might help to read some reviews on Goodreads or Amazon.

That's it for my Christmas guide for Books. I hope it was helpful. Books are such an incredible gift to give someone and they are easy to work into any budget if you just look around and compare the prices,

26 November 2015

Another food themed manicure this week! Just like my Twinsie Tuesday post I went with a sweet theme with these Flying Saucers inspired nails. I used to get these all the time when I was young, I loved the sherbet filling.

24 November 2015

One of my favourite "food" items (really a sweet but sure it'll do for this post) has to be Werther's Originals. They are as old as time but they are so good!I used to have a packet in my bag at all times and they rarely lasted more than a week.
I decided I would do a manicure based on the packaging the sweets come in. It's pretty simple but they really don't need to do anything special with it. The brand is pretty well known for the gold wrappers.

I started with 2 coats of Madam Glam Endless Night. Once that was dry I added on Sally Hansen Complete Salon manicure in Gilded Lily in the shape of the sweet to the tips of my nails. I repeated that process twice to make it nice and opaque. I outlined the shape using Catrice Goldfinger to give it a more 3D look. Finally I used Sally Hansen Patent Gloss in Vinyl to write "Werther's" across the gold. You couldn't really see the writing with the glitters and a glossy topcoat so I used the Essence Satin Matt topcoat instead.

23 November 2015

It's been a while since I wore a colourless nail art design. I was going to a comedy gig and I couldn't work out a manicure for the life of me. I ended up taking off the failed attempt and trying this one out instead. I thought it would be a bit bland at first but the white base and holographic glitters made it stand out just enough for my liking.

I started with a white base on all nails except the ring finger. I had planned on leaving that black but made a last minute design to add on Barry m Starlight from the 2014 Limited Edition Christmas collection. I don't think they are releasing LE Christmas glitters this year but you can still get this one on Boots.ie if you are interested.

From there I striped off my thumb, index and pinky nails using 2 layers of striping tape.Over that I added on Zoya Storm. I also dotted storm on my middle finger using one of the smaller dotting tools I have. I repeated the process on my other hand (I like them to match most of the time)

The most time consuming part was the striping tape. If I had thicker tape it would have been simple.I love the way it turned out though. The holographic glitters in Storm are nice and light. Starlight has a great mix of glitters and I always manage to get a star out without too much hassle. I topped it off with Essence the gel nail polish topcoat and they smoothed all of the glitter out but it didn't dull the holographic sparkle.

19 November 2015

The only thing that sprung to mind for a Fashion themed manicure was a scarf! I love them and I tend to pick up incredibly colourful ones. Polka dots are obviously my favourite design so I went with some polka-dot nails to match.

I started off with Opi Kiss me I'm Brazillian. This is 2 coats although sometimes it could use a third. I wasn't too fussed with that seeing as I was covering most of the nail with brighter colours. In the middle I added a row of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Moheato. On the sides I used Catrice Oh my Goldness. Finally I added on another Catrice polish, Raspberry Fields Forever. I topped it off with Sally Hansen 3D Gel topcoat.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this but A Weekly Dose of Rainbows is an Instagram group so if you want to see the other posts for this theme you'll find them over there.

17 November 2015

I don't really see a major change in my manicures from Autumn to Winter so this weeks Twinsie Tuesday theme was a pretty easy one to do. I keep mostly dark colours on my nails until December and then it is all Christmas themed nail polish.

For this I started off with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Miragle Gel in 560 Spice Age. This is a beautiful brown polish, especially on my new shorter nails. Once that was dry I added on a glitter gradient using a mix of China Glaze Snow Globe and Essence Hello Holo. I topped it off with a coat of Sally Hansen 3D gel topcoat. Really easy but so sparkly!

13 November 2015

Another one of the Essence polishes I was sent is from the I <3 Trends The Darks range. This is Happy New Green, a deep forest green with hidden scattered holographic glitters. You don't see the sparkle in the matte finish but top it with a topcoat and it looks amazing.

The formula is perfect, 2 easy coats and it dries quickly. Personally I'm not a fan of the matte finish on this polish but it's unreal with a topcoat.Essence are really knocking out great formula polishes lately. You are getting amazing polishes for half nothing. This is one of the few brands to show that price does not dictate quality. These are far better than some polishes that cost twice or three times the price.

You can see how much this polish transforms with a glossy topcoat. You would never guess it from the first picture that you would get such a pretty polish by adding on a topcoat. The only clue is in the bottle the polish looks just like the above picture.

There are 6 polishes in The Darks including Indigo to go, which looks like a beautiful glittery blue from the swatches I've seen online.

12 November 2015

A Weekly Dose of Rainbows is back with a new theme. This week we were inspired by the Night (with a rainbow twist). I went with a Childrens Drawing style manicure. When kids paint or colour they don't really care about realism, it's just about using what they have to hand. This style perfectly fits in with the rainbow theme.

I started with 2 coats of Colors By Llarowe Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This polish is perfect for that starry night effect. I decided to do the clouds in a pale yellow using Essence the gel nail polish in 38 Love is in the air. The house is a mix of Sally Hansen Miracle gel in 170 Pink Cadillaquer and Essence the gel nail polish in 51 Miss Captain. Finally the grass is Madam Glam Mint Cocktail. I topped it all off with a coat of the Sally Hansen 3D gel topcoat.

I think it's pretty cute! Twinkle Twinkle little star is such a beautiful base for nail art and the brighter colours on top liven it up a bit so it's not too dark.

10 November 2015

One of the people I am most inspired by is the late Terry Pratchett. His books opened up a whole new world for me and I could not be more thankful that I came across his work. He created characters that are so funny and enjoyable to follow that you can't help but fall into their world and escape from the real world until the very last page.

Wyrd Sisters is the 6th book in the Discworld series. It follows the 3 Witches: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, All are main characters featured in other books in the series. It follows the events after the murder of the king of Lancre and the journey to find the King's son who the witches helped to escape as a baby. It's a good story with some very funny exchanges between the characters.

For the nail art I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 372 Greige.

The witches hat and the cauldron: I used Sally Hansen Patent Gloss in Vinyl. I also outlined the Jesters hat and the baby's features with Vinyl. The bubbles are China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard and Catrice Acid/dc. There's a bit of OPI I just can't copeacabana in the middle with a silver outline.

For the Jesters hat: Nail the bytch Lick or ish bytch and OPI I just can't Copeacabana. For the bells on the top I used OPI Golden eye.

For the baby: I used Illamasqua Monogamous for the face and Sinful Colors Rise and Shine for his eyes. I topped it all off with Essence the gel Topcoat.

I really liked the way it turned out. I think I managed to get the main features on the story included without revealing any spoilers (I hate when people ruin the story. There's honestly no point in finishing a book or a tv show if someone ruins to main part of it)